


Skittles Series: Epilogue: Taste the Rainbow

by MercyBraavos



Series: Skittles Series [6]
Category: Psych
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 03:18:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8561563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercyBraavos/pseuds/MercyBraavos
Summary: Fireworks. A rainbow of Skittles.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PsychLassieFan4Ever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PsychLassieFan4Ever/gifts).



\--

“How long has Guster known?”

They’re in Lassiter’s bed, breathing slowly returning to baseline as they recover. Lassie is on his back, one hand behind his head, the other around Shawn who is lying half on top of him. Lassiter’s fingertips are idly tracing the mark on Shawn’s shoulder, the sensation odd but comforting against the scar tissue. Shawn’s hand rests on Lassie’s chest, feeling his rapid heartbeat taper off into something more normal.

On the nightstand just past their sated bodies, Shawn can see his repaired pineapple dish, a rainbow of maimed Skittles tucked safely in its depths. It made sense to leave it here. Shawn’s been leaving a lot of things here.

This is nice. _Very_ nice. It feels domestic and natural, both of which should be making Shawn run, screaming for the hills because both of those feelings spell c-o-m-m-i-t-m-e-n-t and Shawn’s totally afraid of that.

Right?

But Shawn’s not the least bit scared. He just feels warm and safe. He feels loved.

Huh.

“Since the beginning,” Shawn answers truthfully. “He knew the next day that something was different and I don’t lie to him when it actually matters.” He feels Lassie nodding. “What about you?”

“Hmm?”

“How long has Jules known?”

“Oh.” Lassiter clears his throat in discomfort.

“I’m not _mad_ , Lassie,” Shawn chuckles. “I mean, we’re not really going to be able to keep this a secret much longer.” Blinking, Shawn realizes this is the first time the subject has actually come up. Until now, keeping their relationship to themselves was simply the unspoken norm. He finds that he doesn’t care if other people know; if everyone knows. That should probably scare him too but it just… doesn’t.

“She figured it out in the hospital after you were-“ Lassie’s breath hitches a little and his fingers stop their motions, resting gently over Shawn’s scar. “Rationally, I knew you were going to be fine, but…”

Oh. Oh, _Lassie…_

Chest tight, Shawn slides up a little until he can capture Lassiter’s lips. He kisses his boyfriend slowly and thoroughly before pulling back and pressing their foreheads together.

“I tried to get word to you,” Shawn whispers. “When I made it out of the woods and found that gas station, I begged that guy to call you.”

“You did?”

“Mmh hmm. Right before he hit me over the head and knocked me out.” Shawn feels Lassie’s hold on him tighten so he kisses him again. “Relax, Lass. Everything’s OK now.”

“I know that,” Lassiter grumbles.

Shawn gives him a moment to continue, prompting him when he doesn’t. “So, you knew I was going to be fine, but…”

Lassie scowls at him. “I’m not getting out of this, am I?”

“Nope!” Shawn exclaims before cheerfully kissing his boyfriend’s nose. “You have to tell me all the sappy stuff you did that made Jules wonder if you we were – hey!” Protesting does no good, Lassiter has rolled them up and over, pinning Shawn to the bed and trapping him under long arms and legs. “No fair,” Shawn breathes, “I’m not trained in – _oh_ – restraint.”

“No shit,” Lassie gloats, rolling his hips against Shawn’s. It’s too soon for either of them to go again, they’re not eighteen anymore, but _fuck_ if that friction doesn’t still feel good. After a minute, Lassie relents and slips back, pulling Shawn into his arms.

“Why do I have to be the little spoon?”

“I’m taller,” Lassie says, kissing the back of his neck.

Shawn makes an undignified ‘pfft’ sound and then they’re simply quiet for a while. Shawn is beginning to think Lassiter has dozed off when he suddenly speaks.

“I lied to her.”

“To Jules?” He feels Lassie nodding behind him.

“Told her I needed to go to the hospital to take your statement.”

Even though Lassiter can’t see it, Shawn furrows his brow. “Dobson took my statement… which she figured out?”

“She showed up right about the time I was yelling at the ER nurse who wouldn't let me in while you were being stitched up.” Lassie clears his throat. “I, uh, might have yelled at O’Hara too.”

“What’d she do?” A small part of Shawn is genuinely concerned. A few short months ago, Jules asked him on a date and, even though he’d been royally pissed at Lassie at the time, he’d still turned her down. He’d had to, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care about her.

“She pulled me aside and asked me how long… how long I’d been in love with you.” Lassie’s arms tighten around him again before he lets out a breathless chuckle. “’Years,’ I told her. Years.”

OK, fuck this little spoon shit.

Shawn turns in Lassiter’s embrace and kisses him for the hundredth time that night. Soft and slow and sweet.

“I told her everything,” Lassie continues, “and then she hugged me.”

That makes Shawn laugh a little because _of course_ Jules hugged him. That’s just who she is. So Gus knows and Jules knows which means it’s not a secret and really… never has been. He’s considering how best to approach the whole ‘disclosure’ conversation when, somewhat out of form, Lassie beats him to the punch.

“Will you meet me at the station tomorrow? I – I want to, um, formally acknowledge our relationship to the chief.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Shawn says automatically even though he is virtually singing with pleasure.

“I want to,” Lassie replies, his tone firm. “I’m not ashamed of you or of me or of us.”

Well, OK then.

“OK, Lass.” He burrows sleepily into his boyfriend’s warmth and together they simply breathe for a while until Lassiter, who seems determined to get through as many topics of conversation as possible tonight, pipes up again.

But, Shawn’s got to give him credit here because he was in _no_ way expecting this particular topic of conversation.

“We should go somewhere together.”

Say what now?

Shawn peers up at him. “Like a real grown-up date? Outside of our apartments? Around people?”

Lassie rolls his eyes. “No – well, yes that too, but I actually meant _go_ somewhere. Outside of Santa Barbara. Together.”

Shawn pulls back entirely, looking at Lassiter in what he dimly realizes is unchecked shock. “You want to take a _vacation_ with me?”

Lassiter shrugs in an adorably embarrassed kind of way and Shawn is suddenly giddy. “Any ideas on where we could go?”

There’s a nautical museum in Virginia I’ve been wanting to visit,” Lassie says, his eyes lighting up. “They have the wreckage of an old Civil War battleship and a whole conservation display with artifacts and full scale replicas of pieces they couldn’t recover and – why are you looking at me like that?”

Shawn stops gaping at Lassie long enough to reply, “you’ve really put a lot of thought into this.”

Lassiter lifts his chin defensively. “So what if I have? What’s wrong with wanting to go on vacation with my boyfriend?”

And OK, it’s _insanely_ hot when Lassie calls him his boyfriend.

“You want to take me across the _country_. To a _museum_.” Shawn’s just teasing, but Lassiter looks momentarily stricken so Shawn pokes him gently. “Will you wear sexy professor glasses and whisper naughty historical facts in my ear?”

Lassie gives him a look that clearly says ‘no’ to that idea before smirking. “There’s a theme park and something called “Water Country” twenty minutes from the museum.”

“ _Sold._ ”

\--

It’s at that theme park four months later, a steamy night in early August, when it happens. Sunburned and exhausted, they’re lying on their backs on a steep cobblestone hill because, according to a local girl who caught them kissing in a dark corner of the Festhaus, it’s ‘the most romantic place’ to watch the park-closing, midnight fireworks.

Lassiter had turned beet red and begun stuttering out an apology for their ‘untoward behavior’ – and seriously, who uses the word ‘untoward’ – but the girl had waved him off with a wink. “Virginia is for lovers, dollface. Have at it!” Lassie had openly held his hand for the rest of the day.

Now, lying here on the ground, Shawn is seriously questioning the validity of her suggestion. It is fucking cobblestone after all. But, Lassie looks relatively comfortable. Ankles crossed – ankles that Shawn can see because Lassie is wearing _shorts_ for Christ’s sake – with the back of his head resting in his linked hands.

Shawn glances at the time on his phone. _11:59pm._

He’s calmer than he thought he would be, considering what he’s about to ask.

At precisely midnight Shawn understands why the girl said to come here. The first of the fireworks, gorgeous bursts of red and orange, erupt directly over their spot on the hill. The other park guests around them are breathing the requisite ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahs.’ Distantly he can hear the exhilarated screams of people squeezing in one last rollercoaster ride.

He glances over at Lassie. Flashes of rainbow colors light up his face as the fireworks dance through the sky. He’s smiling, the soft skin around his eyes is crinkled and beautiful. For a moment, Shawn is breathless in a way that has nothing to do with the prismatic display above them.

Here goes.

“Lassie?”

“Mmmh?

“Do you – do you ever think about getting married again?”

Lassie turns his head to meet Shawn’s eyes. He doesn’t whip his head over in surprise or utter a shocked noise or gasp in disbelief. He simply looks over, a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth. In the dark, as crackles of white and gold explode against the midnight blue Virginia sky, Lassiter reaches for his hand and presses a kiss into his palm.

“Yes.”

_Yes._

\--

**Author's Note:**

> The museum Lassie wants to visit is called the Mariner’s Museum and it is located in my hometown of Newport News, Virginia. It’s one of the largest maritime museums on the continent and the library, housed on the campus of the nearby Christopher Newport University, is the largest maritime library in the Western Hemisphere. In 1987, the Mariner’s Museum won the rights to store and display recovered pieces of the USS Monitor which went down in the stalemate “Battle of Hampton Roads” with the CSS Virginia. (I have a history degree, sorry about the lecture, lol.)
> 
> The theme park Lassie bribes Shawn with is Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. (Water Country USA is right down the road.) Every summer, Busch Gardens has a fireworks display fifty days in a row beginning July 1st. They start at 9pm and the park closes at 10pm. However, back in the day the park closed at midnight which seemed a more appropriate time for Shawn’s question.  
> Please feel free to visit Hampton Roads. You’ll be welcomed with open arms!
> 
> Thank you for coming with me on this absurd little ride.


End file.
